Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what steps the Government is taking to ensure that university governing bodies in England cooperate with electoral registration officers in local councils as required under section 13 of the Higher Education and Research Act 2017; and whether he plans to extend that statutory duty to (a) secondary schools and (b) further education institutions.

The Office for Students (OfS) will decide whether to make student electoral registration a condition of Higher Education providers’ registration with them. The Government will issue guidance to the OfS relating to this condition and will make suggestions regarding the content of guidance to Higher Education providers, such as the steps providers should take to comply with the condition. These arrangements will be subject to a DfE-led consultation in the autumn. It is already the case that organisations (including secondary schools and further education institutions) are required to co-operate with requests for information from Electoral Registration Officers.